Indirect tax targets won’t be met this fiscal, admits finance minister

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday it would be hard to meet tax revenue targets in this fiscal, with weak credit demand underscoring his concern about the state of the economy.

In his address to a media gathering organized in New Delhi, Jaitley said that while he expected to hit targeted levels for direct taxes, reaching the goal for indirect taxes would be a "challenge".

With domestic investment weak, Jaitley said this made foreign investment all the more important, and claimed foreign interest in the defence and railway sectors that the government has partly opened up to foreign direct investment.

Jaitley said that he would like to see a law to allow greater foreign investment in insurance passed in the winter session of parliament that starts on Monday, along with legislation to enable the auction of coal blocks.

India is auctioning more than 200 coal blocks after the country's Supreme Court scrapped licences in September that it said were illegal.

Jaitley further said that India is at a crucial stage "where we must not exhaust our patience" as global investors are looking at the country with renewed interest.